Tesla has valued its compensation for billionaire boss Elon Musk at a whopping $158bn (£117bn) in 2025 – according to regulatory filings submitted on Thursday – but also disclosed he will not be getting any of it.
Musk’s compensation reflects the firm’s estimate of what he would earn should he meet the terms of an astronomical pay deal approved by Tesla shareholders in November.
However, it only becomes payable if he hits ambitious milestones, including raising the company’s market value to $8.5tn, in which case Musk could be awarded shares worth up to $1tn.
Analysts say he has some way to go before doing that, meaning the monster pay package is nominal only, for now at least.
“Elon Musk isn’t actually going to pocket $158bn,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
“He’s still got a whole bunch of targets to hit and none of the milestones set out in the $1tn pay deal approved by shareholders last year were achieved in 2025.”
She told the BBC Musk’s compensation figures, disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, are “a promise he’ll receive that amount in Tesla shares for his work over the past year if he does manage to deliver”.
Musk must meet a range of ambitious operational milestones to justify the pay-out, including:
* Raising Tesla delivery levels to 20 million vehicles and one million robots
* Getting 10 million subscriptions to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature
* Bringing one million self-driving Robotaxi vehicles into commercial operation
* Earning up to $400bn in core profit
* Eventually lifting Tesla’s overall market value to $8.5tn
Meeting these goals would see Musk awarded a stock grant of more than 400 million additional Tesla shares – worth around $1tn if the firm’s market value is raised high enough.
“The targets are suitably lofty, but investors wanted to refocus Musk on the EV maker and this unprecedented pay deal has certainly garnered a huge amount of publicity for the company and its boss,” Hewson added.
Biding his time
Musk comfortably sits as the world’s richest person, at the time of writing.
His net worth is currently estimated to be worth $651bn by Bloomberg and $788bn by Forbes.
The respective estimates place his wealth far beyond that of other current or former big tech bosses, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Hewson said this status, and the wealth of his other numerous firms, means while Musk does not receive a salary for his work at Tesla, “he can certainly bide his time”.
His firm SpaceX is also poised to become one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.
The rocket-maker – which recently merged with Musk’s AI startup and X parent company xAI – is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), which would allow its shares to be traded on the stock market.
Musk has also been arguing in court over the direction taken by rival firm, OpenAI, which he founded with its current boss Sam Altman in 2015.
In sometimes testy exchanges with OpenAI’s lawyers, and indeed the judge, he has argued Altman and fellow executive Greg Brockman “stole a charity” by pursuing profit-generating initiatives he felt went against its founding mission.
By BBC News
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